Ectenic Force
by Faiakishi
Summary: Partly out of his need for love and partly out of his desire to spite Jack Fenton,Vlad kidnaps Danny as a baby to raise as his own.
1. Chapter 1

Vlad sat in his car for a long while, staring at the darkened silhouette that was FentonWorks. His bony, pale hands wrapped themselves around the steering wheel, his foot hovering over the brake as he shifted his gaze up to the sky. An eyelash of moon graced the sky, casting her eerie shadow on everything on the ground.

Sighing, Vlad changed into his ghost form, becoming intangible and phasing out through the car door.

His latest mission was somewhat ironic. He had Jack Fenton to thank for his powers, his unique ability to change into a ghost at will, as well as his growing fortunes. But to Vlad, Jack was only responsible for one thing: stealing the love of his life. Maddie. The money, the power…it was nothing compared to the life he could have had if he had married Maddie.

So Vlad felt no remorse as he phased through the front door of the Fenton's home. Once inside, he quickly turned back into his human form. He felt strangely sentimental about this new mission, and wanted to execute it as Vlad Masters-not Vlad Plasmius.

Vlad held his breath as he began to ascend the staircase, thankful the steps didn't creak. He stayed on edge, ready to turn invisible at any moment. Of course, no one was up-it was the middle of the night.

The door he wanted was immediately obvious, and Vlad failed to suppress his grin. That fool Jack Fenton had just made the job of tearing his heart out much easier without even realizing it.

He almost reached for the doorknob when he thought better of it, quickly phasing through the door and the large, hand-drawn picture that spelled out DANNY in crudely formed letters. The inside of the baby's room was painted a pale blue, the furniture colored dark purple. A wooden crib was set up along one wall, underneath the window.

Vlad took a step closer, peering into the crib. Danny was sleeping peacefully, a lavender blanket covering his chubby body. He already had a decent amount of black hair, at which Vlad grimaced-Danny would at least inherit his hair color from his father.

Carefully, Vlad scooped the baby and blanket up in his arms, carefully not to jostle him. But despite his caution, Danny began to fuss, and Vlad panicked; thinking the baby might begin to cry.

"Shh…it's okay, Little Badger." He murmured absentmindedly, bouncing the infant slightly. "It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you."

Danny quieted down, and Vlad gave a sigh of relief. It wouldn't really be much of a problem if he did wake the Fentons up, but he'd rather everything went according to plan. Much fewer complications that way.

Once he was sure the baby was asleep, Vlad turned towards the door, phasing through it with ease. He began walking down the hall, but stopped abruptly when he heard the creaking floorboards, the telltale jingle of a doorknob…

Vlad quickly turned himself and the baby invisible just before a door swung open and Jack Fenton himself came stumbling out, half asleep. Vlad stood still, his heart beating rapidly as Jack tripped over a doll that had been lying in the middle of hallway and finally fell into the bathroom, fumbling with the door handle for a moment before slamming it close.

Vlad let out a breath he had forgotten he was holding. He let his invisibility drop, checking to make sure Danny hadn't woken up.

Slowly, he made his way over to the open doorway that Jack had recently stumbled out of. There, lying in the king-sized bed, was Maddie. HIS Maddie. Sleeping peacefully in a bed she shared with Jack Fenton, living in a house she owned with Jack Fenton, with kids she had given birth to with Jack Fenton.

Burning rage blossomed in Vlad's stomach, and for a second, he just wanted to go into that bathroom and wring Jack Fenton's fat, disgusting neck…

But the fury he felt soon dissipated as Daniel moved in his arms, trying to find a more comfortable position. With a sigh, Vlad forced himself to turn away from the object of his desire.

Vlad made his way down the stairs and out the door without stopping at anything. Soon, he was back in his car, staring at the house again, the baby still in his arms.

Vlad sighed, pressing his head against the steering wheel as he stared down at Danny. Danny was only three months old; he would have no recollection of his life with the Fentons. Vlad had planned the timing of the kidnapping perfectly-the Fentons would have gotten attached to Danny and would so be that much more devastated when they discovered he was missing, but all of the important milestones-his first words, first steps-those were all Vlad's.

Carefully, Vlad made his way to the backseat and strapped Danny into the car seat he had installed. Vlad had spent months getting ready for Danny's arrival; he had acquired a fake birth certificate which stated his name was 'Daniel James Masters' and had used that to get Danny a Social Security card. He found a woman that had died in childbirth-a prostitute named Sally McFadden-and put her name down as Danny's mother. Everything was in place.

Danny was Vlad's. Not Jack Fenton's. Vlad's to raise how he wanted to. He had no one to answer to, no one to prove himself to. Vlad had a son. He had Maddie's son.

Vlad's heart panged painfully as he remembered that even though he had Maddie's son, he would never have Maddie. Vlad started the car.

**Short, yes. I normally write super duper long chapters, so don't get used to this 900 crap.**

**I've always thought Vlad was one of the most interesting characters I've ever encountered in a TV show, movie, or a book. For him, love and hate are so closely intertwined he can no longer tell the difference. This, and the fact he exhibits clear symptoms of several mental illnesses makes him an extremely complex and REAL character.**

**I actually stole the idea of Vlad kidnapping Danny as a baby from another fic on this site, however, I'm almost certain it's been deleted since I can't seem to find it anywhere.**

**And cookies to anyone who can figure out where I got Danny's 'mother's' name from. (No, she will NOT be an OC, she's just a name.) I know this is a short, badly written fanfic at this time but I would like reviews telling me what you think of the plot! **

**-Chihiro**


	2. Chapter 2

Vlad tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the fax machine to spit out the last few pages. He wanted to get this done and go to bed. It was late-after midnight-and since they'd gotten rid of the crib, Danny had been waking him up shortly after sunrise.

Uttering a soft "Finally" when the fax finally groaned and quieted, Vlad swept up the pages he had faxed over from the Amity Park police station. The search for Daniel Fenton was still ongoing, even four years after he vanished. Vlad sat down in his chair to begin reading the report, keeping his eye peeled for any incriminating information.

No serious leads had been found, which Vlad thought he should be grateful for. The Fentons had no real enemies; besides him, of course; and were not extremely wealthy. There were few people who would bother to try and abduct someone like Danny, so naturally, the list of possible kidnappers had gone from consisting of a few homeless men living around Amity Park and some 'rival' ghost hunters to no one.

Not that Vlad himself was at risk of becoming a suspect. Danny's birth certificate would hold up through the most rigorous scrutiny, and if Vlad tried his hardest to forget where Danny actually came from, he could even convince himself there was a resemblance between the two. Vlad had possessed black hair before the ecto-acne disaster, and even had blue eyes, albeit much darker than Danny's bright cyan ones. He could be Danny's father.

Vlad raise his eyebrows as he came across the transcripts of yet another interview with the Fentons. He scoffed at Jack's insistence that ghosts had kidnapped his son, which had been his theory since the day Daniel had disappeared. From the various articles and police reports he had put together, it seemed Jack was convinced this had been the case. He continued to laugh and internally mock Jack throughout his interview, but his pleasant mood soon turned somber as he began to read Maddie's interview.

Sometimes, part of him wanted to take Danny and fly over to Amity Park. He wanted to knock on the door to FentonWorks and tell Maddie that her son was fine, that Vlad was taking great care of him.

But every time he entertained the idea of telling Maddie the truth, he reminded himself that he had worked too hard to create this life for himself, this life with Danny, to bring it all crashing down.

"Daddy?"

Vlad quickly covered the police report with a book that had been lying on his desk, blood flowing to his cheeks as he remembered that Danny couldn't read and would have had no idea what it was anyway. He turned to face the doorway where Danny was standing, dragging his favorite purple blanket, and rubbing his eye.

"What is it, Little Badger?" Vlad asked softly. "It's late. You should be in bed."

Danny gave a small cough and Vlad frowned. Danny was small and underweight for a four-year-old, and even though the doctor told him that Danny was just naturally small and was perfectly healthy, Vlad still worried constantly.

"I had a nightmare. I'm too scared to sleep." Danny said, blinking a few times as his eyes adjusted to the bright light in Vlad's study. Vlad got up, crossing the room to where Danny was standing.

"You don't have a fever…" Vlad remarked as he knelt down and pressed the back of his hands to Danny's forehead.

"I don't feel sick. I just had a scary dream."

"Yes, but sometimes when you start to get sick you get really bad nightmares." Vlad pressed his lips to Danny's forehead and patted him on the shoulder. "Go climb into my bed. I'll be done with my work in a few minutes. I won't let any monsters get you."

Danny smiled, but began to yawn. "Thanks, Daddy." With that, he turned around and walked away, making his way to Vlad's room.

Vlad felt his fatigue catch up to him as he neatly tucked the police report into the same folder as all the other ones just like it, placing it in the only drawer in his desk that locked. With that done, Vlad quickly went to his room, where Danny was already laying, snuggled under the covers.

"There now, Little Badger. No monsters when I'm around." Vlad said as he slipped under the covers. Danny instinctively scooted closer, snuggling up against his father. Vlad wrapped his arm around the small boy, pulling him to his chest. "Wanna tell me what that nightmare was about?"

Danny yawned, opening his bright blue eyes to look up at Vlad's. "I was with Mommy."

"Oh?" Vlad tried to hide his alarm. "What did she look like in your dream?"

"I don't remember." Danny said as he rubbed his eye with his fist. "But I knew she was Mommy." Vlad's heartbeat slowed instantly, and he relaxed. It was common for young children such as Danny to pine for absent parents. He read that somewhere.

"We were together playing by the lake." Danny went on, oblivious to Vlad's internal argument. "But not the one by the house in Colorado. Another one."

"There are a lot of lakes, Daniel."

Danny's eyes lit up with childish excitement. "How many?"

"Well, I-" Vlad scrambled to find some sort of figure in his head, but he simply couldn't come up with a number. "I don't remember." Danny's face fell, and Vlad felt a pang of guilt. "But you know, there's a state that claims it has more than ten thousand lakes."

"Ten thousand?" Danny repeated, excitement creeping back into his voice.

"Yep. It's called Minnesota. Tell you what, someday I promise to take you to see all those lakes."

"If I see one every day, how old would I be when I was done?"

"An old, old man." Vlad chuckled.

"Like you?"  
"Now, that's not very nice. I'm not that old."

"You got white hair."

Vlad laughed. "True. But tell me, Little Badger. Why was your dream so scary?"

Danny fidgeted, biting his lip in an attempt to remember. "There was a vampire. A big, mean vampire with red eyes and a cape, and he came and took me away from Mommy."

"Mmmm…" Vlad hugged Danny tighter, nuzzling his dark hair. He didn't move for a minute; drinking up the moment.

"You don't have to worry, Daniel. I won't let anything bad happen to you."

"I know, Daddy." Danny broke away, bringing a hand up to his eye. "Daddy?"

"Yes, Little Badger?"

"Can you tell me about Mommy?"

Vlad propped his head up on his hand, his other hand tracing circles on Danny's shoulder. "She was a very, very beautiful woman." He said, a smile appearing on his face. Danny smiled as well; looking up at Vlad in adoration. "And smart, too. She majored in microbiology and biochemistry when we were in college."

"What's biool…Biall…" Danny stuttered. Vlad pressed a finger to his lips to quiet him.

"Biology. And chemistry. Oh, wait until you can study science. You'll love it."

Danny smiled. "Will Mommy be proud of me if I do good?"

"If she were here, she would be the proudest mother in the world."

"Good." Danny laid his head down on Vlad's outstretched arm and yawned. "Good night, Daddy."

"Good night, Little Badger." Vlad quickly kissed Danny's forehead, settling himself back down on the mattress. "I love you."

"I love you too, Daddy."

* * *

"The Fentons are working on opening up their own portal."

Vlad spat out a mouthful of coffee, grabbing a napkin to wipe his face. "What did you say?"

Skulker looked unamused. "I _said,_" he repeated impatiently, "The Fentons are working on their own portal. It'll be quite a while before they make any sort of progress, but-" Skulker shrugged. "If they do manage to open one-"

" Which they won't." Vlad said as he got up from his chair and began to pace around the room. "I mean, really…Jack Fenton is an idiot. It'll be a miracle if he manages not to kill his family…"

"You mean, what's left of his family?" Ember remarked, swinging her boots on top of the table. "You know, after you did your little purge or whatever?"

"No one asked for your opinion, Ember." Vlad snapped. "I didn't even invite you!"

Ember sighed and rolled her eyes dramatically. "I'm just wondering what the big deal is. I mean, so what if they Fentons are opening up their own portal?" She folded her arms in the back of her head, leaning back in the chair. "I mean, what's gonna happen? Do you think Jack Fenton is going to single-handedly destroy all your plans? That's bogus, man."

"I don't have to explain it to you, Ember!" Vlad yelled, making a fist at the teen.

Skulker scratched his head, looking perplexed. "Um, really, Ember's right. The Fenton's opening up their own portal is not really a threat to our operation."

"Oh, posh! You're just agreeing with her because she's your girlfriend."

"No, I'm agreeing with her because she's right." Skulker frowned. "Though she's usually not when it comes to this kind of stuff. I don't date her for her mind."

"No, just because I'm so shagadelic."

Both Vlad and Skulker whipped their heads around to stare at her. "What?"

Ember rolled her eyes. "Nothin'. I'm just sayin', Mr. Silver Bullet. Maybe you should just chill."

"I know that one, and you're wrong!" Vlad yelled, pointing his finger at Ember. "And I will certainly not 'chill', especially in a situation such as this!"

"And…what kind of situation is this?" Skulker asked, confused. "Sir, with all due respect…this just isn't that big of a deal."

"Yeah, don't have a cow, man."

"If it's just _not a big deal_," Vlad hissed, "why did you bother coming here to _tell _me this?"

* * *

Danny jumped from the love seat to a brown armchair, his stubby arms wrapped around his favorite stuffed monkey.

"Be careful, Gordo!" He said as they narrowly avoided falling backwards. "That lava will burn us both up until there's nuthin left!" He put Gordo on his back, then turned to stare at the distance that separated him from the couch. "This is it, Gordo. That's the Pit of Doom right there." He reached up to pat Gordo's furry head. "If I don't make it, tell Daddy I love him!"

With that, he jumped off the chair and missed the couch by a good three feet, his fall cushioned by the stuffed animal on his back.

"Noooooooo!" Danny yelled as he reached up to the ceiling, writhing as if he had really fallen into a pit of lava. He pried Gordo off his back, moving to lay beside the monkey. "This is it, buddy! Say goodbye!"

Suddenly, Danny burst into a stream of giggles that didn't stop for a good two minutes. Exhausted, he stared at the ceiling, resting his head on Gordo's chest.

"Daddy will be mad I was playing with lava." He mused, letting his arms flop to the side. "He said it was dangerous. He said I could fall and hit my head." He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I bet Mommy would let me play with lava. She would know I was being extra careful."

He sighed, turning his head to the side and looking out the window, up at the sunny sky. "I asked Daddy where Mommy went, but he said she just couldn't be with me anymore. I don't know what that means." Danny turned over on his side, propping his head up on his hand and talking to Gordo as if he could actually hear him. "Why couldn't she just try really really hard to stay here?"

"Danny?"

Danny jumped up, pulling himself and Gordo onto the couch. "Yeah, Daddy?"

Vlad pushed open the door to the living room, looking relieved when he spotted Danny on the couch.

"There you are, Little Badger. What are you doing in here?"

"Just playing with Gordo." Danny said, gesturing to Gordo like Vlad should have already known. "Was Ember here?"

"Yes, but she had to leave. Were you jumping around on the furniture?"

"No." Danny turned away to hide the grin that appeared on his face.

"You liar." Vlad reached over and began to tickle Danny, who laughed and flopped over. "Haven't I told you that you could get hurt?"

"But I had Gordo with me, so I was safe!" Danny protested, sitting up and hugging his favorite stuffed animal.

"Mmm…" Vlad turned to face the window, staring out of it intently. "Danny, remember what I told you about Minnesota? How it has ten thousand lakes?"

"Yeah. You promised you'd take me to see some of them."

Vlad smiled, turning to face Danny on the couch. "Well, what do you think about moving to Minnesota?"

Danny tilted his head, looking confused. "But we already live here."

"Oh, we would still keep the mansion, and the one in Colorado." Vlad waved his hand, like it was no concern of his. "But we would live in a new house in Minnesota most of the time. You'd go to school there. I'd go to work there. Doesn't that sound fun?"

"I guess…" Danny said, then raised his hand to cover a yawn.

"Oh, sugar cookies." Vlad swiftly stood up. "It's your naptime, isn't it? Well, come on now. Time for your nap."

Danny only nodded, grabbing Gordo as he followed his father out of the living room. It wasn't until they had gone down the hallway and were ascending the stairs that Danny finally spoke up again.

"Daddy?"

"Hmm?"

Danny stifled another yawn, holding Gordo close. "Where in Minnesota are we moving to?"

Vlad stopped on the staircase, turning around to smile down at the young boy. "A place called Amity Park. Trust me, Little Badger. You'll love it."

* * *

Jazz sighed as she heard her parents fight downstairs. It was something to do with some stick, a stick from a box Mommy had brought home one day from the grocery store. It seemed like their only purpose was to pee on them, so Jazz didn't really see the point of them. But her parents always watched that stupid little stick to see what color it changed into. Jazz didn't understand what was so important about the color of the stick her Mommy peed on; it was all too complicated for a six year old. She tiptoed to her doorway, opening the door just a crack.

"You know, Jack, if you had just _locked the front door _like any responsible person-"

"Excuse me? How is this my fault? If it was a ghost, a lock wouldn't have stopped them! This isn't my fault!"

Jazz slipped out of her room, trying to block out the sounds of the fight. They were arguing about Daniel again. Lately it seemed like that was all they ever did.

Quietly, she turned the doorknob to the room at the end of the hallway, the door that still had the DANNY sign taped over the wood, and entered her absent brother's room.

Even though four years had passed since her little brother had disappeared, her parents had refused to change anything about his nursery. The blue walls were fading from the sunlight, and the crib was still set up on the opposite wall, as if waiting for it's occupant to return any moment.

Jazz knelt down on the floor, like she had done so many times. The sound of her parents fighting faded away. "Hey, Danny, it's me. Jasmine. You know, your big sister." She sighed, her eyelids feeling impossibly heavy. "Mom and Dad are fighting again. About you. They really don't fight about anything else. I mean, sometimes Mom starts yelling at Dad for forgetting to install some filter on the new ghost portal they're making, or Dad will get mad at Mom if she accidentally burns dinner, but they always are fighting about you in the end."

Closing her eyes for a second, Jazz tried to remember all she could about her little brother. It wasn't much. Danny was just a bundle of cloth in her mother's arms, a bundle of cloth that screamed and needed to be changed and fed.

What Jazz remembered was the aftermath. Waking up to the sound of her mother's hysterics, watching her father tear the house apart looking for some place a baby could be hiding. Listening to the police officers monotone voices as they talked to her parents, offered her some candy. Jazz brought a hand to her face as she realized she was crying.

"I-I never really told you about this, Danny, but I think I should tell you now." She choked back a sob, but it came out anyway. "Mom and Dad totally changed when you left. Mom stopped getting up and doing things. She just slept all day and cried." This time she didn't bother trying to hide the sob that came up from the back of her throat.

"Daddy was worse. A while after you left, Daddy went down to the lab and destroyed all his weapons. It was the loudest noise I've ever heard. He took a hammer and hit a bunch of things until they broke, but then he got an axe and started smashing them. And I was so scared, because Daddy was ruining his stuff and Mommy wouldn't get out of bed." The tears were now flowing freely down Jazz's face, and she made no move to brush them away. "I started crying, and Daddy came over and held me and he was crying too, he told me he was sorry and he just loved both of us so much."

Jazz doubled over, clutching her stomach as she sobbed. Downstairs, she could faintly hear her mother yelling something as a door slammed, then everything was quiet. Jazz looked up at the empty crib, the sun shining though the bars.

"Why did you leave us, Danny? We love you so much. Why won't you just come back?"

**So I fail at writing 'Baby Danny!' and Vlad. Sorry. I hate small children, regardless of how clean and well-behaved some of them can be. (Such as Danny here.) So four-year-old Danny is a fail. Don't worry, in the next chapter we skip ahead to normal time. Er, um, 2005.**

**I know Vlad is an evil mastermind and has tried to kill Danny several times, but we've already established that he has mental issues. I mean, the guy tries to CLONE the poor kid. But I think, fruitloopiness aside, he would truly love Danny if he saw him as anything other than a pawn in his great and fabulous chess game.**

**For those who don't know, (or have never cared) Amity Park is supposedly located in Minnesota. Except it never snows in the show, so it apparently only takes place during about three weeks of the school year. I live in Minnesota, so I have no clue what kind of Minnesota they're actually in.**

**And I totally loved writing the scene with Skulker and Ember. I want to bring those two back and have some more playful banter between the two. Skulker is just badass, and I love writing Ember's 70's lingo. (According to Nick, she lived and died in the 70's. Which is why she calls Vlad a Silver Bullet.) For those not up on 70's talk, a Silver Bullet is a name for a male virgin…haha, Vlad. I normally would have left it open to whatever you guys wanted to say it means, but I googled it to see what you would get…I was not refering to a vibrator. Which is actually what you get if you google 'Silver Bullet.' I suffer for fanfiction. I am now scarred for life.**

**Oh, last thing. But Gordo is the name of one of the more famous chimps who traveled in space. I thought it would tie in nicely with the fact Danny wants to be an astronaut.**

**Ok, review pretty please! And while I do appreciate the plethora of reviews simply asking for 'more,' I never intended to leave you guys. You don't have to beg for more, I will write it because I like writing it. And now I get to write teenage Danny, and that makes me very happy**!

**-****Bonzu Pipinpadaloxicopolis the Third****. According to my twin and step brothers.**


	3. Chapter 3

The first thing Vlad noticed as he woke up was that the leaves on the trees still hadn't changed color. Vlad had always loved watching the leaves change colors, seeing the green forest become alight with the flaming reds, oranges, and yellows of dying leaves. But most of all, he loved the fact that winter was approaching, the heavy snowfalls that would wrap around the house and create a cozy safe haven just for Vlad and his small family. And in Minnesota, the changing of the leaves very shortly precursed the first snow.

Vlad sighed and forced himself out of bed, frowning when he heard his joints creak as he stretched. He and Danny had lived in Minnesota for nearly ten years now, only returning to the Wisconsin castle during the summers when Danny didn't have school. Danny was now fourteen, and a freshman at Casper High.

Vlad's stomach tied itself in knots whenever he thought about the high school. He had been so against Danny going to Casper High. There was a private school Vlad could have easily afforded, a bit of a drive from their home, but they could have made accommodations. He remembered telling Danny that he was intelligent, he deserved better than some dinky public school. He had bit his tongue when his true reason swam to the front of his mind. _'Jasmine Fenton goes to that school! What if there's some sort of resemblance between the two? What if a teacher notices? What if, what if, what if...'_

Eventually, he bit his tongue and let Danny go. He reminded himself that there were hundreds of teenagers walking the halls of Casper High. Daniel would be a freshman, while Jasmine would be a junior. In the end, he had worried for nothing. Danny had been going to the school for almost a month and it certainly appeared that no one had noticed a thing.

_'And even if someone were to become suspicious,'_ he had to reason with himself. _'there is no way anyone can prove anything. My plan was foolproof.'_

Vlad walked groggily to his bathroom, frowning when he did not hear the creaking of the pipes indicating that Danny was up and showering. He shook his head as he stripped off his thick pajama pants and shirt, reminding himself that it was Danny's own fault if he was late to school.

Soon Vlad found himself showered, shaved, dressed, and downstairs, starting on his first cup of coffee of the morning. He was quick to boot up his laptop, scrolling through the various emails and documents he had received since signing out late last night. Danny stumbled down the stairs, half-awake.

"Morning, Dad." was Danny's half-hearted greeting to his father as he went to make his breakfast. Vlad surveyed his outfit with a disapproving look. Danny insisted on wearing raggy, nondescript t-shirts and threadbare jeans that had to be two sizes too big for him, even though Vlad could afford to outfit him in the most ridiculously expensive clothes available. Danny insisted that his clothes were 'comfortable.' Vlad had rolled his eyes at that one, but Danny had won that round.

"Good morning, my boy. Running a bit late this morning, are we?" He smirked, watching as Danny nearly spilled an entire jug of orange juice on the counter as he tried to pour it as fast as possible, grabbing a muffin from a plastic box.

"Just a bit." He replied nonchalantly, slipping into the chair across from Vlad. "I got a few minutes before I have to meet Sam and Tucker, though."

Vlad frowned at the mention of Danny's friends. He had never liked that Samantha girl, even before she dyed her hair black and started protesting. And Tucker was just...strange. But he had been Danny's closest friend since the day they started preschool, so Vlad tried his best to tolerate him, at the very least.

"Ah." Vlad shut his laptop, folding his hands over the machine. "Been a while since I've seen Sam around. Are you two growing distant?" He asked, a glimmer of hope in his eye. Danny, however, laughed and shook his head.

"No, her parents just have sticks up their asses and think me and Tuck aren't 'good influences' or whatever." Danny rolled his eyes, using hand gestures to illustrate his point. "I think they're both coming over after school though."

"Mmm..." Vlad nodded, taking a sip of coffee. He may have disliked Sam herself, but her parents wore on his every nerve. He was probably worth ten times more than each of their skinny asses put together, but they still had the audacity to turn their noses up at his son.

"Well, I need to get going. Bye, Dad." Danny quickly tossed his muffin wrapper in the trash and put his glass in the dishwasher, turning it on when he saw it was full. He grabbed his backpack lying on the floor, rolling his eyes as Vlad pulled him in for a quick hug, but returned it anyway. "See you tonight."

"Bye, son!" Vlad called out as Danny darted out the front door. "I love you!"

**DP**

"Come on, aren't you curious?"

Sam ran to keep up with her two best friends as they walked down the halls of Casper High after school that day. "I mean, a Ghost Zone! You _have_ to be curious about that."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Sam, I _am _curious. But it's Jazz's parents' portal, we don't really have a right to be snooping around."

"Yeah, Sam." Tucker looked up from his always-present PDA for the first time, earning a sour look from the goth. "It's not like we can just go up to the front door of FentonWorks and be like, 'oh hey, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, you don't know us, but we're casual friends of your daughter and would like to see the creepy top-secret portal you guys are working on!'" He gave Sam a deadpan look, causing Danny to crack up.

"Tuck's got a point, Sam." He put his arm around his female best friend, who looked at the ground in disappointment. "Oh, come on, Sam. We've never even met the Fentons, and we're not even that great of friends with Jazz."

Sam looked up, her disappointment evident in her eyes. "I just thought it would be cool. And you're always up for an adventure." She smiled shyly at Danny, causing him to immediately blush and look away. Tucker folded his arms and sniffed snobbishly.

"Well, I can ask Jazz if you guys want." He said, unfolding his arms and returning to his normal persona. "We know each other pretty well, since we're in the same math class and all."

Sam smiled. "That would be awesome." She smacked Danny in the shoulder. "I, for one, am looking forward to seeing it."

Danny rubbed his shoulder. "Ow, Sam, that really hurt!"

Tucker just rolled his eyes, leaving the two 'lovebirds' to each other while he ran down the hall to catch Jazz at her locker.

"Hey, Jazz. What's?" Tucker said as he approached the red-haired girl at her locker. Jazz turned around, smiling when she saw Tucker standing there.

"Oh, hey Tucker. I'm doing fine. What's up with you?"

Tucker shrugged. "Doing fine. Hey, you know that Ghost Portal you said your parents had finished?"  
Jazz's smile dropped from her face, and she turned back around to her locker, stuffing books into her backpack with unnecessary force. "You mean the giant hunk of metal sitting in my basement? What about it?"

"Well," Tucker fidgeted. "you know, my friend Sam, she's really interested in what your parents have been doing, and-"

"She wants to see the portal." Jazz sighed. She turned around to face Tucker, slinging her cyan backpack over her shoulder. "Well, if you guys_ really_ want to, you can come over and see it. But my parents say it doesn't even work, so it would be kinda pointless."

"That's okay. It would still be cool." Tucker said, a grin appearing on his face. "When should we come over?"

Jazz shrugged. "Now's fine, if you want. We can just take my car. Who's all coming, you, Sam, and Danny?"

"Yep. I'll go grab them."

Jazz followed Tucker back to where Danny and Sam were still bickering, pretending to jump on Danny's back. "Jazz said yes! Do you guys wanna go now?"

Jazz finally caught up to Tucker, who had sprinted the last few meters. "Wait, don't you guys need to call your parents or something?"

Sam shrugged, an indifferent expression on her face. "Nah. I already told my parents I was gonna be with these two idiots after school. They won't know the difference."

"Yeah, and my parents don't ask anymore. They just assume if I don't come home, I went to Danny's house."

All eyes turned to Danny, who sighed and dug his cell phone out of his pocket. "Yeah, I guess I probably should call my Dad…"

"You act like it's gonna kill you." Sam folded her arms, staring at Danny expectantly. "Is something going on with you and your Dad?"

"Something out of the ordinary?" Danny asked, his fingers poised over the buttons. "Not really. Just being the usual overprotective fruitloop as always. It's just really grating on my nerves lately." Danny rolled his eyes.

"Well, just give him a call and you can stay over at my house tonight." Tucker said. Danny nodded, speed dialing his father and listening to it ring twice before Vlad picked up.

"Hey, Dad. It's me." Danny listened for a second, making the crazy sign with his free hand. "No, everything is fine. Listen, I think I'm gonna spend the night at Tucker's. Is that okay?" He stayed silent, listening to his father talk. "Yeah, I'll come home after school tomorrow. No, I didn't forget. Okay. I love you, too. Bye."

"Aww. Danny loves his Daddy!" Tucker mocked as he fake-punched Danny in the arm, who threw a few fake punches back.

"What didn't you forget?" Sam asked, pulling Tucker back from his assault. Danny rolled his eyes.

"Oh, just some dumb party he's throwing in a month or two. He keeps warning me not to make plans."

"Do it. Just to piss him off." Tucker had broken free of Sam's death grip and was now poking Danny in the arm mercilessly. Danny began to harass him back, at which point Jazz intervened, pulling the two apart by their shirts.

"That's enough! My god, you two act like toddlers!"

"Yeah, their behavior hasn't changed much since they _were _toddlers." Sam snorted. "The first day Danny joined our preschool class, I'm pretty sure you two conspired to trap me inside the big slide."

"We did not conspire." Tucker pushed his glasses farther up on his nose, raising one finger to illustrate his point. "I simply decided to go down the slide at the same time Danny decided he'd climb up the slide, and Sam just happened to be in the middle."

"And then Sam started crying." Danny added, avoiding the smacks Sam sent his way as he poked her. "Then I remember we finally let her out and she punched me."

"Yeah, and I got a time-out for that!"

"I got a bloody nose!"

"This is honestly how we met." Tucker said, elbowing Jazz. Jazz sighed and rolled her eyes.

**DP**

"I don't think my parents are home, but they really don't care if I have people over." Jazz said as they entered FentonWorks. Tucker stopped to gawk at the fancy security system, until Sam grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.

"Come on, Tuck. Ghost portal to another dimension in the basement? Let's go."

Danny could only laugh as Sam dragged Tucker away, following Jazz as she maneuvered though the living room. Danny listened to the echoes of their voices bounce off the walls of the house, looked at the layer of dust that coated the rather large television. Jazz's house seemed…neglected. As if people had settled in the house with the intention of living in it but soon grew small. That's what human presence felt like it Jazz's house. Small.

"Danny? Are you coming?"

Danny came back to reality, head snapping to attention as Jazz called after him.

"Yeah. I'm coming."

The Fenton's kitchen had the same barely lived-in feeling as the living room, but the lab in the basement felt like a whole different world. Tables were strewn with bits and pieces of different, half-assembled gadgets, some looking as fearsome as a bazooka, some as harmless as a tube of lipstick. Fast food wrappers were interspersed with the tools and crumpled up papers littered the floor.

The lab looked like it was the only place the Fentons really lived, or at least where Jazz's parents lived. Danny felt almost ashamed of himself for violating this seemingly sacred space.

"Whoa. Is this it?" Sam asked, gesturing to a huge metal ring surrounding an opening in the wall, wires strung about the inside. Jazz nodded.

"This is the infamous ghost portal. Except my parents haven't been able to get it working."

"Oh my god, Jazz…" Sam nearly squealed, causing both Danny and Tucker to stare at her in utter shock. Oblivious, Sam turned back to Jazz. "Do you know how _cool _your parents are?"

Jazz scoffed. "No, they're not. They're weirdoes. And what's worse, they're weirdoes who can't even get their own stupid invention to work right!"

Jazz stepped forward and kicked the portal. She bit her lip and cursed as the portal responded with an unaffected '_clang' _and she was left grabbing her injured toe.

"Dammit…" she cursed, shoving Sam away when she tried to step in and help. "I'm fine. I'm just sick of them and their stupid obsessions."

Danny went over and lightly touched Jazz's shoulder. "We should probably get going, guys. I don't think Jazz's parents would appreciate us snooping around their lab."

"What? Nah." Jazz stood up, having recovered from her toe injury. "Trust me, they'd adopt you guys on the spot if you told them you were interested in ghost fighting. I think there's some extra jumpsuits over there if you guys want to check out the inside." She pointed over a large metal cabinet that Danny immediately ran over to and opened up. Tucker reached the doors soon after, and they grappled for a minute over the lone jumpsuit inside the cabinet.

"So were your parents hoping for ghost hunter children or something?" Sam said sarcastically, leaning against the frame of the portal. "Because I can totally relate. My parents are totally unaccepting of my goth lifestyle."

Jazz giggled softly and looked down at her shoe. "No, my parents have always been happy with me, but I can tell they're disappointed in how much I hate ghosts. I don't think it would be a big deal if I weren't an only child, but my little brother died when he was a baby and my mom was never able to get pregnant again, so I'm their only one."

Sam covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh, Jazz, I'm so sorry. I never knew."

Jazz shrugged, staring blankly at the wall. "Don't worry about it. I was only two at the time." She turned her head and smiled at Sam. "Don't look so bummed. It doesn't affect me anymore."

"What doesn't affect you anymore?" Danny asked as he approached the two girls, zipping up the black and white jumpsuit he had won in the fight with Tucker.

"Nothing." Jazz stepped forward, pointing at Danny's chest. "You can NOT go walking around with my dad's face on your chest. It's just not right." She reached forward and pulled the Jack Fenton sticker off right as Tucker came up besides Danny.

"Why do you think I let Danny win?"

"You _let _me win? I beat you fair and square, techno-geek!"

"Okay, enough." Sam stepped forward with a large black **D **she had drawn and cut out of her notebook. She slapped it on Danny's chest, the sticky residue of the Fenton sticker making it stay in place.

"What the heck is this, Sam?" Danny pointed to his chest as he walked Sam walk away. "I mean, it's pretty and all, but…what?"

"It's an artistic **D**." Sam shrugged, pulling out her notebook and beginning to scribble again. "I'll make a **T **for Tucker too."

"Well, go check it out, Danny." Jazz motioned into the portal. "Just be careful."

Danny nodded and looked into the portal. From the outside, the portal was just a hole in the wall, a tangle of wires spilling out from the opposite wall. Danny couldn't imagine that this machine could really act as a portal to another dimension, a ghost dimension.

Danny stepped into the portal.

The first thing he registered was that the lighting changed inside the portal. The dark, metal walls seemed to emit a strange blue glow, and Danny was transfixed by the darkening effect it had on his pale skin. His footsteps seemed strangely muted, and the chattering voices of his friends a few feet away sounded broken and disjointed, a stray laugh from Sam ringing painfully in his head. Danny shook his black hair, thinking about what a weird place this was and felt around the wall for a place to lean against, accidentally pushing a green button with the word ON written underneath it.

The portal suddenly sprang to life, the dim blue glow Danny had noted earlier instantly transforming into blinding green light. Danny almost turned back, but the green light seemed to sink into his flesh, wrapping around his bones and burning his from the inside out.

Danny screamed.

**DP**

**Sorry, I was offline for about three days here, due to two consecutive viruses appearing on my computer in that time frame. Seriously, it was just one after the other.**

**I epically failed at the description of the portal, I had a picture of the non-activated portal in my head, but I kept thinking…'it's kind of a round tube thing with knob things…yeah.' I also epically failed in my portrayal of Vlad. I feel like Vlad would totally be one of those 'do as I say or die' parents, but for the sake of the story, I'm just gonna say raising Danny softened him and he actually lets Danny get away with some shit.**

**On a side note, has anyone ever wondered why the Fenton kids really don't look like Jack or Maddie? I mean, Jazz is a freaking ginger, but Jack had black hair while Maddie has brown. At least Danny inherits his hair color from Jack, but what's up with their eyes? Maddie has freaking PURPLE eyes, and Jack's are a kind of navy. Danny has really bright clear blue ones while Jazz has sort of aqua ones. I guess you could say they got in from Jack but blue eye color doesn't really work that way…and don't get me started on Danny's size. I mean, seriously, what the hell?**

**Ok, that's gonna be all since I need to be at work in twenty minutes. Review, pretty please! I love you all!**

**-ChiChi the Wonder Dog**


	4. Chapter 4

"So I need you to help me pick out some of the music we'll be playing at the reunion. You know, since a lot of my classmates will be bringing their teenagers. What do you think?" Vlad asked his son as he took a bite of his lasagna. He stared intently at the boy seated across from him, chewing thoroughly and swallowing before speaking again. "Daniel?"

"Huh?" Danny startled, blinking a few times before coming back to reality. "Oh, yeah. Sounds like a great plan." He quickly shoved a forkful of his dinner in his mouth, not meeting Vlad's eye.

Vlad simply raised one eyebrow, focusing his eye on Danny's downturned face. "You're not listening to me."

Danny swallowed, staring down at his food. "Yeah I am. Party. Music. There's going to be other teenagers. I got it."

Danny sweated as Vlad continued to stare at him, as if he was trying to read his mind. Finally, Vlad sighed and put his fork down, pushing his plate away and folding his hands in front of him. "Daniel, is there something going on?" Danny looked up from his plate, meeting his father's inquisitive eye. "Something you're not telling me about?"

Gulping, Danny, quickly returned his gaze to his food, spearing a bit of lasagna on his fork. Of course, he had considered telling Vlad the truth, several times, but each time his fear overwhelmed him, forcing him to abandon whatever idea had begun forming in his head. But Vlad was obviously becoming suspicious of his dodginess, his sudden reclusive behavior.

Plus, it was getting harder to mask his 'accidents.' At first his plan was to stay in his room until the weirdness had either gone away or became easier to control. But it hadn't. If anything, the weirdness got worse. And he didn't want to tell Vlad what had happened in the Fenton's basement; what the reason behind his sudden 'clumsiness' was.

Danny didn't want his father to know he had become a…freak.

But he couldn't deny that he needed some help, had to figure this out. He couldn't just wait around for his body to do something crazy again, something that could really get him hurt this time. And who better to help with his problem than his Dad?

Danny bit his lip and took a deep breath of air. He had to tell his father. Had to get it off his chest. He looked across the table and into Vlad's concerned eyes and opened his mouth.

Right that instant, his fork fell straight through his hand, like smoke.

Danny yelped and jerked backwards, staring at his hand for a second before looking up at his confused father.

"No. Nothing is going on." He snapped, grabbing his plate and walking over to the garbage disposal, scraping what little there was left of his dinner in. "Everything is fine. There's nothing for you to worry about."

Vlad marched over, placing his plate down on the counter and looked around, annoyed, before he realized that it was the butler's night off and popped the dishwasher open. He glared at Danny angrily out of the corner of his eye. "But I _do _worry, boy, I'm your father. If I didn't worry about you, I simply wouldn't be doing my job."

Danny turned away, rolling his eyes as he grabbed the dish soap. "There's absolutely nothing for you to worry about. I'm _fine._" Vlad closed his eyes, rubbing his temples.

"You certainly are not fine! You come home straight from school almost every day, you go straight to your room and you stay there until dinner." Vlad opened his eyes, beginning to list off Danny's offenses on his fingers. "You've avoided your friends, your grades are slipping-really, Daniel, I got your progress report this morning, and I have to say, I expect far better from you."

Danny looked away, staring intently at his shoes as Vlad crossed his arms and stared at him.

"What in the world is going on with you, my boy?"

Danny snapped his head up, his eyes boring into his father's as Vlad glowered back. "_Nothing _is going on! I don't know why that's so hard for you to accept!"

"Because I know you, boy!" Vlad closed his eyes and pinched the tip of his nose in annoyance. "I know this isn't normal behavior for you. So I am simply bringing my questions to you."

"Well, here's your answer!" Danny yelled over his shoulder as he walked out of the kitchen. "I'm _fine!_ Now _leave me alone!_"

Danny didn't wait to see Vlad's response to his outburst. He turned and towards the stairs, taking them two at a time. He could hear Vlad yell something behind him, but he ignored it, slamming the door to his room for good measure.

Finally alone, Danny turned around and pressed his back against the door, sinking to his feet and wrapping his arms around his knees. "I'm a ghost, Dad." He admitted for the first time in three weeks as he buried his face in his folded arms. "I'm a ghost."

A year ago, maybe even a month ago, he would have thought that something like a _human-ghost hybrid _couldn't be real. A month ago, he didn't even think _ghosts _existed, much less half-ones.

But he couldn't deny what he was. The image of Sam, Jazz, and Tucker's slack jaws and wide eyes as he stepped out of the smoking portal in the basement of FentonWorks was ingrained in his mind. He could remember raising his hands and shakily attempting to reassure them he was fine when he noticed how his voice seemed to unnaturally echo in the small lab. He thought of how weird that was when he caught sight of his white-gloved hand.

He had been confused for a minute, remembering the jumpsuit he wore into the portal was white with black gloves. But then his brain had caught up to the situation, and he raced to the closest bathroom, his heart hammering in his chest.

Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw in the Fenton's mirror. His normally black hair was a glowing white, quite similar to his own father's hair color, once he thought about it. His skin had turned quite a bit darker. But worst of all, when he looked into his eyes to find the bright, striking blue color he had always possessed, he was met only with a glowing, unnatural green.

"Danny, my dad can fix this." Jazz had reassured him as he stared at his reflection in horror. He could still hear her in his head; the way she tried to keep her voice even but couldn't mask the panic so evident in her eyes. Danny hadn't responded, just stared at himself as Tucker and Sam joined them in the bathroom, all three of them trying to talk over each other as they tried to figure out a solution; a cure.

Eventually, Danny figured out how to turn back, which he was immensely relieved about, knowing that he was not, in fact, a ghost, and had not died in the portal.

Once he had managed to turn back to his human form, he quickly stripped off the jumpsuit, thanking Jazz before he, Tucker, and Sam departed for Tucker's house.

Sam had tried to talk to Danny once they were up in Tucker's room, but Danny had ignored her. Tucker sided with him; suggesting that maybe the random color change was only temporary and the entire ordeal would be soon forgotten.

Danny hadn't responded. And after Jazz told her father about the accident and Mr. Fenton called him on his cell phone to see if he was okay, Danny had barely responded to his questions and refused their offer to look him over and make sure he was indeed alright.

Deep inside, Danny knew that whatever the ghost portal had done to him, it was permanent and irreversible. He could feel his mutation, his _ghost-half _inside him, just waiting to burst forth.

Danny sighed as he got to his feet. His father had apparently decided to leave him alone, and he could hear the sounds of the television as Vlad turned on the Packer's game. Overwhelmed by sudden curiosity, Danny closed his eyes and focused on the icy feeling centered in his chest, allowing it to spread out over his body. He immediately felt a sharp, bitter cold shoot up his spine, replaced quickly by a pleasantly cool sensation as the cold fingers of his ghost half glided over his skin. And, unbeknownst to him, two white rings appeared around his waist.

Danny's hand flew to his chest as he braced himself against his desk. "Whoa. Certainly wasn't expecting _that_." He whispered to himself as he jammed his fingers against his neck, searching for his absent pulse.

"Figures. I really _am _a ghost." He muttered, shaking his head before deciding to try out the one power he could sometimes even think he might be excited about-flying.

He switched off the light to his room before becoming intangible and floating through his window. He waved his arms a bit, unaccustomed to keeping his balance while floating 20 feet in the air, but he soon got the hang of it. Soon enough, he was testing his speed, flying fast over the large houses in his well-to-do neighborhood. And for the first time since the accident, Danny smiled.

His friends were now aware of what the ghost portal had done to him. Two days after the accident, Danny had made Tucker stay behind in the locker room as the rest of their class went off to gym, freaking out as he showed Tucker how his arm kept going _invisible_.

Tucker had been shocked, of course, but he hadn't had the slightest clue as to why the ghost portal would have had that effect on him. They had been forced to tell Sam that same day in the gym, when Danny had attempted to do a few chin-ups and his hands kept passing through the bar like it wasn't even there.

She dragged him straight to Jazz as soon as school let out, who bit her bottom lip and looked at him with a mixture of worry, pity, and confusion in her eyes.

"I don't know, Danny." She had said when they asked her what could possibly be going on. "My parents might know if they could take a good look at you. They might be able to help."

Even though both Sam and Tucker had pleaded with him to take Jazz's advice, he had refused, and begged all three of them to keep it between the group. Jazz was the hardest to convince, but finally she had to agree when Danny brought up how her parents were scientists and probably wouldn't be able to stop themselves from experimenting if they did find out the truth.

Truthfully, Danny didn't know _why _he wanted to avoid involving the Fenton's. He knew they probably would at least have some sort of idea of what could have happened to him. And he seriously doubted that they would use a friend of their daughter's as a lab rat like he told Jazz.

But he still stood firm in his decision to keep his…_freakishness _between him and his three friends.

Danny turned over on his back and looked up at the sky. He could tell it was starting to get late, and he knew he should probably go home before his father decided to check on him at half-time.

Even with this in mind, Danny began veering in the opposite direction of his home, until he found himself above FentonWorks. Blinking a bit to clear his head of a bit of déjà vu, Danny quickly became intangible and flew through the roof.

He had no idea which room was Jazz's, having only been to FentonWorks once and never setting foot in the second floor. So he wasn't surprised when he landed on the floor and looked around to find that it wasn't Jazz's room.

What he found peculiar, though, was that it _looked _like a bedroom. The light was off, but with Danny's heightened ghost senses, he could see fine. A twin bed sat underneath the large window overlooking the street, and a wooden desk was pushed up against the adjacent wall. A decent sized dresser was placed along the opposite wall, and a single picture frame was set on top.

Danny blinked, trying to figure the room out. It certainly wasn't a guest room, or else it would have contained a double bed. And from what little he knew about Jazz's dad, he could safely assume that any guest room the Fenton's had in their house would probably be buried in her father's various ghost 'weapons.' But he had pieced together from their various conversations that Jazz was an only child, so it wasn't a sibling's room.

Closing his eyes and rubbing his temples, Danny let out a sigh. "I'm standing here wondering about the purpose of a random room in someone else's house. It's official. I've gone insane." He muttered, before becoming intangible again and phasing through the wall. This time, he could tell he had gotten it right.

Jazz was sitting at her desk, scratching away in some textbook as Mozart played quietly. Danny flew right behind her, becoming tangible again as he landed and leaned over her shoulder. "Boo."

Jazz shrieked loud enough to wake the dead, her pencil flying through the air. Danny clutched his stomach as he doubled over laughing. Jazz stood up, turning around to confront her friend.

"Danny! How did you get into my-"She stopped suddenly, finally taking in the sight of her friend in his black and white jumpsuit with Sam's weird **D **still attached to the chest. "You can…go back and forth?"

Danny shrugged, changing back to his human form. His hand flew to his chest as his heart restarted, and he gritted his teeth against the sudden, unexpected pain. "I guess. I just decided to try it now, and figured I'd try flying."

Jazz's mouth fell open, but she soon snapped it closed and smacked Danny with the first thing she managed to get her hands on, which happened to be a stapler. "Danny! What were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed!" She continued to hit Danny with the stapler, despite his attempts at worming away.

"Ow! Jazz, I'm fine!" He pushed her away and threw his hands out to his side. "See? Fine. I'm not growing a third eye, and I'm not spontaneously combusting. I. Am. Fine!"

Jazz stepped back, folding her arms as she pursued her lips. "I don't know, Danny. I don't like the idea of you using your powers before my parents make sure that it's safe." She looked down, fiddling with the stapler in her hands. Danny put his hands up.

"Wait. _Powers? _Jazz, I don't have superpowers, I have a mutation." He said, running his fingers through his hair as he sighed. "Look, you're the one who told me I wasn't dealing with the whole accident and everything. Are you telling me now that I _shouldn't _try to accept it?"

"No, no!" Jazz insisted as she set the stapler down, putting her hands on her friend's shoulders. "I just don't want something to happen-"

"Jazz? Jazzypants?" A loud, booming voice reverberated across the house. Jazz whipped her head around, and then grabbed Danny by his collar and dragging him across her room.

"Oh, crap, you have to hide!" Jazz quickly yanked open her accordion-style closet door before hastily shoving him inside. "I'm sorry, my dad doesn't like me being alone in my room with boys. I'll get rid of him as fast as I can."

Danny opened his mouth, but Jazz had already shut the door, leaving only a small sliver of light at the bottom. Danny pressed himself against the edge, trying to get a good look around the edge of the door and wishing that he was more confident in his ghost powers and could just stay in her room invisible.

"What's going on in here, Princess?" said Jazz's father as he burst into her room. Danny squinted his eyes, but all he could see was a large mass of orange. He nudged the door slightly so he could see better. "I heard you talking to somebody."

"Oh, I was just talking to Tammy over the phone!" Jazz said in a voice two octaves higher than normal. "When did Mom say she was coming home?"

"I could have sworn I heard a boy in here." Mr. Fenton mused thoughtfully as he looked suspiciously up at the ceiling. Jazz shook her head vehemently, her grin widening. Danny leaned in closer.

"Nope! Just us and the floorboards! When's Mom going to be home?"

Mr. Fenton finally heaved a sigh, defeated. "Said she'd probably be back around ten. I guess I'll let you call your friend back now…"

Danny failed to cover up his shriek as he suddenly became intangible and phased through Jazz's closet door, becoming solid again just before he hit the floor; his now-tangible foot nudging the closest door farther open.

He laid there for a second, ignoring Jazz's father's scandalized gasp. "I knew it! You were hiding a boy in your room! Boy, when I get my hands on you, I'll-"

"No, no, it's not like that!" Jazz ran in front of Danny, holding her arms out to the side. Danny hesitantly got to his feet, brushing some dirt off the knee of his pants. "Dad, this is _Danny_. You know, the kid who got injured by your portal?"

Jazz stepped aside and gave Danny a slight nudge. Danny stepped forward, rubbing his eye and looking at the floor. "Um, yeah. By the way, I am _really _sorry about messing around with your portal…"

Mr. Fenton blinked a few times, obviously not expecting his daughter's 'guest' to be apologizing instead of making up excuses. Danny tried to stare back at him, but had trouble locating his face amidst his tremendous girth. When he finally locked eyes with Mr. Fenton's round eyes, he noticed that they were quite similar to his and his father's unique coloring.

"Danny's still pretty shaken up about the accident. He came over to talk." Jazz folded her arms as she glared at her father, who now looked completely embarrassed. "And he didn't really want to talk to you because he knows how much you've bothered me about getting him to come over and give you blood samples and all that crap."

Danny stared at Jazz with an amazed and confused expression on his face. He hadn't known that Jazz's parents had been bothering her about getting him to come over. Maybe his 'lab rat' fear wasn't so far-fetched after all…and Jazz had continued to fight her parents on his and not reveal his secret, despite how worried she was. Danny suddenly acquired a whole new respect for his ginger friend.

"Umm…well, now that you're over here, Danny, it would be the perfect time to do that!" Mr. Fenton cried as he wrapped his hand around Danny's bicep and ran out of the room, dragging Danny along with him. "I know you kids don't really like needles, but I just need a little blood! And once I get a sample, I can test it to make sure you haven't gotten sick from the ectoplasmic radiation!"

Danny gritted his teeth, hoping that his arm wouldn't suddenly go intangible with Amity Park's head ghost hunter was dragging him around. "Wait, Mr. Fenton, I-"

"Dad, knock it off!" Jazz yelled as her father pulled Danny down the stairs with him. "Quit freaking my friend out!"

"Ah, Princess, I just want a blood sample!" Mr. Fenton whined as he reached the bottom of the stairs. But he did let go of Danny's arm.

"I know, Dad, but you have to understand that the portal turning on with Danny inside it really messed with Danny's head! He's not ready for lab experiments." Jazz leaned against the stair railing, crossing her arms. "Actually, I don't think you should ever perform experiments on my friends."

Mr. Fenton pouted. Danny opened his mouth, but closed it again quickly when he realized there was really nothing to say.

He couldn't give Jazz's father a blood sample. He had no idea what exactly the portal had done to him on a molecular level to make him…_half-ghost, _but whatever it was, Danny was sure that Amity Park's leading ghost experts would be able to tell what he was by looking at his blood.

And Danny could not afford that.

"Well, as long as you're here…" A creepy grin appeared on Mr. Fenton's face as his eyes slid over to the kitchen. Jazz groaned and slapped her forehead. "Why don't you join Jazzy and me for some ice cream?"

Danny grinned.

* * *

"So, Danny, how do you know my Jasmine?" Mr. Fenton asked once they were all seated at the Fenton's round table, vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream laid out in front of them. Jazz had decided to pass on the toppings, politely spooning plain vanilla ice cream into her mouth, while both her father and Danny had loaded their sundaes up until they were more topping than ice cream.

"Um, really just through our friend Tucker." Danny cleared his throat. "Tuck and I have been best friends since I moved to Amity Park, and he's pretty smart, so he and Jazz share a math class."

"Remember Tucker?" Jazz chimed in, relaxing a bit for the first time since Danny appeared in her room. "You know the Foley's, Dad. They live on the next block over. Tucker's their son."

Mr. Fenton looked confused for a second, but then smiled brightly. "Oh yeah, that kid with the beret! He ate all the hot dogs at the neighborhood barbeque last year…"

Danny stifled a laugh. "That's Tucker for you. He's a carnivore through and through."

Jazz's father laughed heartily, as if Danny had just told a hilarious joke. "Kinda like how I'm a fudge-eater through and through, right Jazzypants?"

Jazz looked stunned, her spoon still in her mouth. Finally, she spat the utensil out and placed it back in her bowl. "Uh, yeah. My dad loves sweets. And now that he knows you like them, he'll probably force you to pig out with him every time you come over.

Danny laughed. "I'm good with that. My dad doesn't like junk food, and he usually doesn't allow it in the house. So thanks for this, Mr. Fenton." He lifted up his bowl, gesturing to the ice cream.

"Aw, no problem, kid!" Mr. Fenton clapped his hand on Danny's shoulder, and Danny was barely able to hide his grimace of pain.

"Hello? Anyone home?"

The sound of the front door opening and Mr. Fenton subsequently jumping up from his chair managed to cover up the sound of Danny freaking out as his arm suddenly went intangible, his ice cream spoon crashing to his bowl.

"Maddie, you're home early!" Mr. Fenton jumped over to the fridge while Jazz shot Danny a panicked look as the boy desperately flailed his arm, hoping that would somehow force it to regain tangibility. "Have some ice cream with us! I bought chocolate syrup today!"

There was a soft chuckle as Jazz's mom hung up her coat. "Well, maybe just a scoop or two…" Jazz let out a relieved sigh when Danny's arm turned back to normal, but Danny just became more concerned about the fact that his intangibility only transferred to his leg. Mrs. Fenton's footsteps could be heard padding across the living room floor, pausing when she reached the archway to the kitchen.

Danny looked up at Jazz's mother. Despite having recently been out in public, Mrs. Fenton was wearing a deep blue hazmat suit, very similar to Danny's own ghost-half costume, once he thought about it. The only differences, besides the fact that Mrs. Fenton's suit was blue and clearly made for a female, was that her suit had a hood, complete with a pair or red goggles attached. The hood was currently down, revealing her large, amethyst eyes staring owlishly at Danny as her mouth hung open slightly.

"Um, hi, Mrs. Fenton." Danny raised his hand awkwardly. "I'm Danny."

"Danny…" Her hand flew to a thin gold chain around her neck, fingering a small diamond pendant at her throat. Danny shifted uncomfortably as Jazz's mom stared at him.

"Mom, Danny's my friend from school." Jazz explained. Her mother seemed to snap out of her trance, turning her gaze to her daughter. "He just dropped by and Dad pretty much forced him to eat some ice cream with us."

"Danny's the kid who got hurt by the ghost portal, sweetie." Mr. Fenton said, his head still buried in the freezer. "He claims he's fine, but he won't let me take a blood sample."

Mrs. Fenton's face seemed to relax. "Oh, Jack, don't frighten Jazz's friends." Jazz's mom went over to the cupboard, taking a bowl down from the shelf. "Does Danny have a last name?"

Danny briefly glanced at Jazz before swallowing and opening his mouth. "Masters. My name is Danny Masters."

"Masters?" Mr. Fenton, having finally found the ice cream, stood up and turned around to face their guest. "That sounds familiar…"

"Darling, don't you remember Vlad Masters?" Danny nearly choked on his ice cream. Neither of Jazz's parents seemed to notice, Jack being too wrapped up in his thinking and Maddie being too busy scooping ice cream. "You wouldn't happen to be related to him, would you, Danny?"

Danny cleared his throat. "Um-yeah, actually. He's my Dad."

Maddie's head whipped around staring at Danny excitedly. "_Really?_" She grabbed her bowl and spoon, scurrying over to sit down at the table with her daughter and Danny. "Vlad was our best friend in college! Jack used to room with him, didn't you, Jack?"

"Oh, yeah! Vladdie and I were the best of pals!"

Danny stifled a giggle when he thought of Jazz's kind of insane and oafish dad referring to his uptight, strict father as _Vladdie._

"Oh, I haven't seen him since he contracted that terrible case of ecto-acne." Jazz's mom mused as she rested her chin on her palms.

Danny shoved another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. He wanted to ask about this 'ecto-acne'-it had come up in quite a few of conversations between Danny and his father, though every single time his father had been drunk and looked incredibly embarrassed before quickly changed the subject, making Danny even more curious. However, Mrs. Fenton began talking again before he even opened his mouth.

"I always wondered what became of him. What he did, where he lived, who he married…" Mrs. Fenton then turned to look at Danny expectantly. Danny put down his spoon.

"Uh, well, the only girlfriend I've ever known him to have was my mother, and she died when I was a baby…" Danny said. He looked down at his bowl to avoid seeing all the Fenton's cringe.

"Oh dear, that's terrible." Jazz's mom shook her head. "Raising a baby all alone like that. I can't imagine."

Danny opened his mouth to reassure her, but left his jaw hanging when he realized he really had nothing to say to Mrs. Fenton. Right then, his cell phone beeped loudly. Danny grasped the phone in his pocket and pulling it out, reading the caller idea and grimacing when he saw it was his father.

"Oh geeze, I'm really sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, but I gotta answer this." He pushed the chair back, walking towards the living room as he flipped his phone open. "Hey Dad."

"_Where in blazes are you?" _His father hissed over the phone. _"I go into your room to apologize and you've disappeared! No note, no text, nothing!"_

"Sorry. I'm at a friend's house."

"_How on earth was I supposed to know that?" _Vlad ranted over the phone. Danny resisted the urge to roll his eyes. _"You could have been abducted by terrorists or something, and I wouldn't have known!"_

"I'm sorry. Look, I'll leave in the next two minutes and come straight home. Be there in a half hour, tops."

"_You better." _And then the line went dead. Danny sighed and snapped his phone shut.

"Thank you so much for the ice cream, Mr. Fenton, but I do have to get home before my father has a stroke." Danny said as he strolled back into the kitchen. A grin lit up Mr. Fenton's face.

"Of course! Anything for my Jazzerincess's friends!" Jack stole a glance at Jazz, who looked like she wanted to hide. "And call me Jack. I heard that all the 'cool' kids call their friend's parents by their first names."

"Um, okay. Thanks, Jack." Danny said, thinking about how weird it was to call Jazz's dad by his first name. "But I do really need to get going, or I'm going to be grounded for life."

"Do you need us to give you a ride home, Danny?" Jazz's mom asked sweetly. "A half hour is a long time to be walking, especially this late at night."

"No, I'll be fine." Danny smiled, eager to get away from the two ghost hunters. As nice as they were, something about the revelation that they were his father's college buddies deeply unsettled him.

"You sure?"

"I'm sure. Thank you so much. See you in school, Jazz!"

"Bye, Danny!" Jazz waved at him as he turned to walk out the door. "And next time you come over, remember to tell your father first!"

* * *

It had been a terribly boring night so far for Skulker. He had been patrolling the skies of Amity Park almost nonstop since Plasmius had detected another ghost's ecto-signature within Amity Park, but he was becoming skeptical. Plasmius had commented on how…weak the ecto-signature was, and the ghost hadn't shown his face once since his ecto-signature had shown up on the radar.

Skulker sighed. Most nights there would at least be some interesting fights to watch, or young children to scare, but this night was empty. No one was about, and Skulker felt…bored.

"Plasmius doesn't pay me nearly enough for this…" He muttered under his breath as he passed over the rooftop of Casper High. At that precise moment, his communicator let out a series of loud beeps. Skulker pressed down on a green button, and the face of Vlad Plasmius in ghost form appeared on the screen.

"The ghost's ecto-signature is getting stronger, Skulker. My radar indicates that it is somewhere near FentonWorks."

"What do you mean 'the ghost's ecto-signature is getting stronger,' Plasmius, ecto-signatures do not fluctuate!" Skulker grasped his head in frustration.

"I don't have time to figure it out, Skulker, just find the ghost and capture it!" Plasmius yelled in frustration. "Bring it here once you've done that. Then maybe I'll allow you to take it home." With that, the screen went fuzzy as Vlad terminated the call.

"Bastard…" Skulker muttered under his breath. Right then, he saw a streak of blinding white shooting through the streets below and he grinned. That would be his prize.

Skulker turned his guns on, aiming at the blur for a moment before firing. The ghost went hurtling to the ground below, and Skulker swooped down to meet him.

"New ghost in town?" Skulker said as he landed. "I should probably introduce myself. I am Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter." His serious face disappeared as he smirked. "And for the time being, I will be your teacher, while I educate you about who runs this town."

Skulker whipped out his gun and fired at the green-eyed ghost kid, who gasped and jumped out of the way. The ghost chuckled. "Why, you're just a pup. Tell you what, ghost child. I don't normally take pity on ghosts like you, but I'm in a good mood tonight, so I'll cut you a break. Come quietly to meet my employer, and you get to keep your head."

Danny looked up at Skulker with fearful eyes, his knees knocking together he was shaking so bad. "Wait, you don't understand. This is all a big mistake."

Skulker shrugged, aiming the gun once again. "Have it your way."

Expecting the shot, Danny turned himself intangible, floating down into the sewer below them and coming up behind Skulker.

"Seriously, you have to listen to me." Danny said as Skulker whipped his head around, confused. "I'm just a kid. I didn't ask for any of this."

Skulker blinked at him, and for a second, Danny thought that he just might be emphasizing with the younger ghost. But the softened look in Skulker's eyes soon disappeared, and brought his large gun up to his eye and aimed. "Neither did I, whelp. No ghost ever did."

The shot went off like a blast of thunder. Danny screamed, his body already anticipating the blow.

Skulker's ecto-blast hit his squarely in the stomach, sending his flying backwards into an alley, slamming against a dumpster so hard he turned back into his human form.

Danny saw the glow of Skulker's ecto-skeleton before Skulker actually entered the alley, so he quickly hid behind the dumpster he was thrown against, curling up in response to his injury. Skulker floated into the alleyway, hovering for a bit before checking a screen on his right arm. Finally, he turned intangible and phased through the asphalt.

Danny heaved a sigh, and forced himself to stand up. He pressed his hand to his bleeding stomach and, after testing his balance skills, ran like hell out of the alley.

* * *

"So the ghost just showed up out of nowhere?" Sam asked as she ran the towel under the hot water faucet. "You were just flying along, and he just up and attacks you?"

Danny attempted to shrug, but quickly grasped his stomach and sucking in air. "Pretty much." He adjusted his position, perched on the edge of Sam's bathtub in her spacious, luxurious bathroom, to lean back slightly and allow Sam to treat his wound correctly. "I think he said his name was Skulker, and that he was the greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone."

"My God. They really do exist." Sam muttered to herself as she wrung the now steaming towel out in her sink, turning around and walking over to her friend. "Hold still. This is gonna hurt." She moved his hand out of the way to reveal the large, circular wound, crusted with Danny's dried blood and traces of glowing ectoplasm running through.

"Yeah, and not only that, but-" Danny gasped as Sam pressed the burning hot towel to his stomach. The pain was intense, and it took every bit of Danny's concentration to avoid kicking Sam herself.

"Sorry. But I have to clean it or it'll get crazy infected." Sam told him a she began moving the towel around, trying to clean the blood from her best friend's skin.

Danny hissed, but the urge to kick Sam in the face was gradually disappearing. "Anyway, Skulker also mentioned an 'employer.' And something about somebody running the town." He grimaced. Sam put the towel down, walking over to her cabinet.

"I guess to me, it sounds like whoever hired Skulker to take you out is also the ghost who kinda rules over Amity Park." Sam theorized, before a disgusted look appeared on her face. "Ugh, gross. A month ago, I thought ghosts didn't even exist, much less rule over towns."

"Uh, Sam, you were the one pushing me and Tucker to go check the ghost portal out." Danny pointed out before wincing as Sam sprayed something onto a cloth and pressed it against his wound. Sam sighed.

"Yeah, but I didn't think it would actually work." She admitted, taking the cloth away and setting to work cutting up rows of gauze. "I just found the idea of another world for ghosts so intriguing. I never thought that this..._Ghost Zone _could actually exist."

Danny sighed, adjusting his position to sit more comfortably. "I thought the portal was just a pile of junk, like Jazz told us. I never thought that it could…"

He didn't finish, instead looking down at the gaping hole in his stomach. Sam reached up and pressed her hand to his face.

"Danny, your powers make you unique. Unique is _good_."

Danny pushed her hand away as he turned to look out the window. "Sam, I've only been using my powers for one night, and already it's gotten me beat up by a ghost, I almost got beat up by Jazz's dad, and worst of all, my dad is going to _kill _me when I get back home." He said, tiredness evident in his voice.

Sam picked up her scissors and continued cutting the gauze. "You got these powers for a reason, Danny. Now you just have to figure out what you're supposed to do with them."

"That's just it, Sam." Danny said as he moved down to lie down on the floor besides Sam. He stared at the ceiling avoiding Sam's eye as she began to lay the strips of gauze over his bloody wound. "I don't think there is a reason I got these powers. I don't think I _have _a purpose."

* * *

**So I am REALLY sorry that this chapter took so long. But it's nearly the length as the first three chapters put together so that makes up for it, right? RIGHT? 'cricket chirp'**

**Sigh. In my defense, I did read the fabulous Checkmate, by Pearl84. That story kept me prisoner for about three weeks. (Which is actually how long it took me to read it, when I factored in things like working, and a social life.) But anyway. On with the story!**

**No, Vlad has not yet figured out Danny's half-ghost. Remember that the way Vlad got his ghost powers was way different than the way Danny got his. It's a safe bet to say that Vlad received his powers either as a result of the ecto-acne he contracted after the first portal blew up, or the ecto-acne developed as a side effect of Vlad getting his ghost powers. Either way, Vlad's powers probably developed differently than Danny's, so I don't think he would recognize the signs when he saw them in Danny.**

**That being said, I hope you all enjoyed the little scene where Danny meets his real parents! Thinking some shit would go down? Keep in mind that Danny has no freaking clue he's been kidnapped. He think Vlad is his father and his mother died when he was little, which is exactly what Vlad has told him. And the Fenton's have no reason to suspect that Danny is actually their long-lost son. To them, they're just finding out that their daughter has become friends with their college buddy's son, who just happens to have the same name as their missing child. (And Daniel is a fairly common name, so it's not that weird.)**

**Did anyone catch the Spongebob reference? If anyone did, you win 15,693 Kameko points. And Sokka and Zuko will come to your house and sing you 'Bad Romance.'**

**Zuko: 'glowers'**

**Sokka: "Yay!"**

**Also, in this story, Danny's birthday will be April 3rd. (The day Danny Phantom premiered in the real world.) His actual birthday, the day he was born. Vlad makes up another birthday, just to throw people off. There is a small Easter Egg relating to Danny's birthday. If you actually find it, you are a god and Sokka and Zuko will sing to you the 'Bad Romance' and YuGiOh parody, 'Leather Pants.'**

**Alright everyone, review! Review! Hopefully everyone was more in character this time. I had issues with that last chapter...the first three chapters existed purely to set the story, this is where the fun begins! And where we see longer chapters.**

**Okay, time for me to take a shower at 5:30 PM. Here's a quote from my Daddy.**

**"Don't look at me in that tone of voice!"**

**-Kameko Awkward Chimp**


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